A thought for the solstice

The Winter Solstice today is exciting people, understandably, to think of times improving. New dawns, new springs – and there is hope, I know: but we must remember that 2016 saw the rolling of boulders that will continue to crash around our ears for years to come. Quite apart from entertainers, lyricists and prophets whose voices we lost this year (I think instantly now of Leonard Cohen), more perilously we awoke þursen of intolerance, plutocracy and fascism that I cannot see being put to rest in my lifetime. I am not at all sure 2016 is the darkest time.